I was re-reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and toward the end I was struck by one line of dialog: “I could not have parted with you, my Lizzy, to anyone less worthy.” It is generally accepted that Mr. Bennet is saying that Mr. Darcy is most worthy to marry Elizabeth. But, given everyone’s prior…
Tag: the lucifer strain
Dialects: To Phoneticize or Not To Phoneticize
When writing dialog for a character who speaks with an accent or dialect, the question always comes up – do you spell their quirks of speech phonetically (“Oy, ‘ow loverly that ‘oman be!”) or merely mention the accent and then go on to write their dialog in plain English? For myself, I don’t mind phonetically…